A report <\/a>\u00a0from the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association gave B.C. an “F” grade for having Canada’s longest cochlear implant wait times.<\/p>\nAccess to cochlear implantation within six months is \u201cessential,\u201d given the \u201cprofound impact\u201d of untreated hearing loss, the report says. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Paul Mick, a neurotologist and cochlear implant surgeon at St. Paul’s, said the delays come with real harms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main impact is on a person\u2019s ability to communicate, but there are also impacts and effects on health, physical, mental, cognitive and emotional health,” Mick said.<\/p>\n
Mick said research shows connections between hearing loss and rapid cognitive decline in aging, higher incidences of dementia, depression, falls and injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur wait times are years longer than the next province, so this is not normal,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If people have to wait for these types of services, we could be losing the critical window for optimal outcomes before these things start to have an effect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
WATCH | How can B.C. reduce hospital wait times?:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785084914_918_default.jpg\")
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How can wait times at hospitals be reduced?<\/p>\n
Hospital wait times and wait times for special treatment, screening, and diagnosis are an ongoing challenge in B.C. We talked to Jason Sutherland, a professor at the UBC school of population and public health, who studies the development of methods for monitoring and evaluating health system performance.<\/p>\n
B.C. Conservative rural and seniors health critic Brennan Day called Barr’s five-year wait “unacceptable.”<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t seem like this is being prioritized by government,” he said. <\/p>\n
“These are fairly straightforward procedures now that have life-altering effects, especially when it comes to seniors.”<\/p>\n
Without action, the waits will only get longer, given B.C.’s population of seniors is forecast to grow by 25 per cent in the next decade, he said. <\/p>\n
Providence Health Care declined to comment, referring CBC’s interview request to the Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the ministry cited growing demand for cochlear implants due to an aging population, advances in technology and expanded eligibility.<\/p>\n
While B.C. funds the program, “it is the responsibility of the health authority to operationalize the program and manage service delivery,” it added. <\/p>\n
The ministry said B.C. had performed 116 adult cochlear implants in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n
“Since 2021\/22 the number of adult CI surgeries completed per year has almost doubled, and more surgeries are performed every year,” the ministry said.<\/p>\n
Mick compared that figure to Ontario, where the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre alone performs 263 surgeries per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not enough. Our official budget, it\u2019s for 70 per year, we had to ask to bump it up to the 116,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve almost booked 70 cases already this year and it’s only been four months into our fiscal year.”<\/p>\n
Barr, meanwhile, said the delays leave patients in the lurch. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe longer I wait, not only is it the lack of access to hearing right now but the concern about my long-term outcomes and risk of dementia and cognitive decline,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five years ago, Shelby Barr contracted a suspected viral infection that turned her life upside down. “It happened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-827514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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